LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 185
“Yuki, can you help me out?”
Then a completely random phone call came in.
Yuki let out a short hum in response to the request.
“Last time, you said you didn’t need any help.”
“Did I say that?”
“Yeah, when I asked if you could help, you said no thanks.”
“No, that’s not…!”
At the same time, Da-eun started yelling from the other end, and a whiny little girl’s voice chimed in with a “surprise!”
Da-eun’s voice faded for a moment as she tried to calm the girl, but she was back soon enough.
“That’s because of what you said!”
“What I said?”
“You said if a weird person came along, you’d drag them into the ring and fight them. You claimed you didn’t need help!”
“? Is there something else you need help with? I can’t think of anything, honestly.”
“What’s with that unbelievable self-awareness?”
“I’m always like this.”
“I can’t even right now.”
“So—”
Yuki probably put on an utterly incredulous face.
She pictured Da-eun’s expression over the phone, thinking, “What help do you even want?”
“Are you gonna help me?”
“Well, let’s see what you’ve got.”
Yuki dodged giving a straight answer, casually pushing it off for later.
From a regular perspective, it wasn’t exactly a positive signal.
It gave off a vibe like, “I’ll review and get back to you later.”
But what Yuki actually meant was she’d listen and decide, while Da-eun, assuming the worst, dived right into the main point without much hope.
“So, um…”
* * *
“…’Could you walk around near my house?’ what kind of request is that?”
What kind of favor was this?
Even funnier was the fact that she had agreed to such a thing.
Yuki walked along the street, feeling a bit self-deprecating.
According to Da-eun, it was supposed to be “throwing out bait” or something.
At first, she had brushed it off, but now aimlessly wandering the streets, she felt like she was the bait stuck on a fishing line.
“This isn’t even my job.”
…But Yuki’s complaint fell within Da-eun’s expectations, which was why she had already explained it when asking for help.
If the focus was on Kana, wandering around alone wouldn’t mean much, and she didn’t want to expose Kana either, and so on.
“Of course, you wouldn’t want to be seen by someone like that.”
Da-eun explained, her voice dripping with guilt.
It was called help, but in a way, it felt like using someone else.
That’s why Da-eun felt uneasy asking for help.
“I don’t mind…”
Yet again, Yuki seemed unfazed.
Her face was already all over the media; what difference would it make if a few more people saw it?
Of course, that was different from her personal life being sold, but still, Yuki wasn’t the type to care about such things.
In fact, she accepted the request willingly because she wasn’t keen on this situation disrupting her training.
It was new bait for the fish and a trap to catch whatever it was.
“…”
Although they had that conversation, all Yuki retained in her mind was Da-eun asked, and she agreed, that simple implication.
And one more thing.
“If I finish this quickly, I can train again.”
She was itching to move already, so Yuki thought getting this over with would be preferable.
Her reasoning was as straightforward as it could get.
“…Does this even work?”
No matter how she thought about it, just fighting it out seemed easier.
Yet, muttering complaints, Yuki obediently moved her feet according to Da-eun’s request.
“?”
Suddenly, an odd sense tingled up her spine, sending a shiver through her brain.
She stopped in her tracks and looked around, but nothing caught her eye.
“Is it just my imagination?”
As Yuki looked around, she turned her head.
If she were the protagonist of a horror movie, she’d bump into a ghost at that moment, and if it were a comedy, she’d fall straight into an open manhole.
But since Yuki was a real person and not in a movie, nothing happened.
Even after chanting the incantation “Is it just my imagination?” with powers nearly as immense as “Did I finish it?”
But as she turned around, she didn’t miss a shadow that quickly ducked into an alley.
Even if she couldn’t see the figure clearly.
“Huh.”
Yuki fiddled with her lips.
…Why is this working?
For someone like Yuki, who would rather fight back than run from a storm, it was incomprehensible.
But her job was to follow Da-eun’s orders, so there was no need for her to understand anything deep.
She had prepared for a few days of hard work, so starting with solid catches on the first day of the operation felt like a stroke of luck.
Having confirmed the fish had bitten, Yuki slowly but surely pulled on the fishing line.
“…I wasn’t spotted, was I?”
Meanwhile, the “fish” who had bitten the bait, a guy who had posted about Joanie and her cousin online, let out a breath he had held in.
Decked out with an expensive camera borrowed from a friend, he strutted around confidently, though he actually had no sharp plan.
To put it bluntly, his guess that Joanie lived nearby hadn’t been confirmed as fact.
She could have just been visiting a friend in the area and was out and about that day.
If so, he was wasting both time and money.
Often referred to as a “time Bill Gates,” he felt a twinge of loss as he watched the sand flowing through the hourglass.
Not fixing that was another issue altogether.
Anyway, he had thrown down the gauntlet but was at a loss about what to do now that he was actually out here when he spotted a silver-haired woman.
Walking confidently with her face fully revealed, a guy who often dabbled in figure monitoring instantly recognized who she was.
“It’s Yuki!”
But wait, didn’t Yuki live somewhere else?
As the man pondered this, suddenly a lightbulb went off in his head.
Wasn’t there some connection between Joanie and Yuki once he started playing Silia Online?
Even if the girl who acted as a link between them had disappeared, it wouldn’t be odd if some interactions had occurred because of that.
“I can’t shake this uneasy feeling.”
It felt like he’d left the gas stove on and just walked out.
The man couldn’t quite rid himself of the nagging sensation that he’d missed something.
But ultimately, without identifying the root of his unease, he raised the camera.
If Yuki came looking for Joanie, wouldn’t that be a golden opportunity to catch the clues he had been hoping for?
The man stealthily moved forward, making sure not to be noticed by Yuki or anyone around.
This felt like he was stepping into detective mode… maybe even secret agent vibes…
In reality, his tailing skills were hilariously weak, and he had been spotted for ages already, but he was blissfully unaware.
He didn’t even realize that people were glancing at him suspiciously from across the street.
Thus, he followed Yuki, who was swaying her silver hair enticingly.
He had no clue that he was walking straight into a narrow trap.
“Where is this?”
The man chasing after Yuki found himself in front of a building.
The office building looked exceptionally high-end and was recorded in his memory.
But he hadn’t easily recalled it since he rarely went this way.
If she lived in such a place, there was no way they would run into each other.
“Oh no!”
As he looked up at the office building, lost in thought, he suddenly realized the silver-haired woman he had seen had vanished.
What to do? Should he follow her and check the floor number?
“Nah.”
The man shook his head.
No way was that a safe move.
One wrong step and he could easily get labeled a criminal, so he decided against storming the office building.
What he wanted was to provide “proof,” not engage in any crimes.
So, he didn’t enter the office building, but strangely, he didn’t go home either.
It wasn’t satisfying just to discover a clue about his prey.
*Click*
“Ugh, another bust.”
He had been quietly hiding in an inconspicuous corner, snapping photos of people going in and out of the office, but he was unaware.
He had already long surpassed the line that should allow him to return.
“Are you a photographer?”
A cold white hand landed on his shoulder.
“I love looking at photos too. Mind if I see what you shot?”
That hand felt so cold.
As he turned his head, the voice reached his ear, and he found the very woman he had been watching, cold as ice, glaring at him.
Alongside a huge man in uniform.
“Uh, uh…”
“Could you show me?”
It was impossible not to figure out from Yuki’s words that it wasn’t a mere request, and unfortunately, the man fit right into the category of those who lacked awareness.
If he had been a bit more aware, he probably wouldn’t have gotten himself into such a mess.
With no sharp reflexes, a million excuses flashed through his mind, but none came out of his mouth.
He meant to say something, but the moment his eyes met the man in uniform standing with his arms crossed, all his resolve shattered into pieces.
In the end, all he could do was place the camera in the scarred hand of that man, looking down at him with a glare.